In order to understand some of the hysteria in academia over campus carry you have to understand that there are folks on campus, equipped with PhDs who sincerely believe that these things work:
Or do they really believe this?
Probably not because it is not a student with a firearm that poses an existential threat to those in their ivory towers. A prof's existential threat is posed by a pissed off student giving a bad evaluation. The promotion and tenure committee may claim to look at other factors including research and publications, peer reviews and service activities, but the fact is whining students can make all that irrelevant. It is pure lunacy to ask a student to rate the experience a) before it is complete (don't even think about having evals after the final exam) and b) before the student has advanced to the next course where the true value surfaces. That they not only allow this silliness but actively promote it undermines academia's pontification on just about any topic.
Or do they really believe this?
Probably not because it is not a student with a firearm that poses an existential threat to those in their ivory towers. A prof's existential threat is posed by a pissed off student giving a bad evaluation. The promotion and tenure committee may claim to look at other factors including research and publications, peer reviews and service activities, but the fact is whining students can make all that irrelevant. It is pure lunacy to ask a student to rate the experience a) before it is complete (don't even think about having evals after the final exam) and b) before the student has advanced to the next course where the true value surfaces. That they not only allow this silliness but actively promote it undermines academia's pontification on just about any topic.
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